Discussion for article #238631
The ONLY one that really cares about the working class is Bernie Sanders, no gop rethug will and as bad as I hate to say it, nether will Hillary. They are bought and paid for by the very ones destroying this Country …Corporations.
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The polling may have blind spots. Bernie currently polls better among college educated whites than the non-college educated. But college educated whites are also more likely to have reached out to learn Bernie’s message, which has been widely ignored by a press far more fascinated by Trump, despite far less of a chance that Trump can actually be nominated by a major party.
What we need is a poll of non-college working whites who are familiar with Bernie’s campaign. His messaging is effective - witness the crowds at rallies - but takes time to percolate through a press which is, lets face it, largely owned by the billionaires whose taxes he wants to raise. Meanwhile, Trump keeps bragging about his “$10 billion.” Fortunately for Bernie, and for us, there’s still time.
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It’s always been “the lesser of evils” in the political spectrum – Well… at least since 1860 –
Working class folk are trapped–flat or declining wages and life insecurity. Where once a membership in a union–or, really, just the threat of forming a union–was enough to counter corporate power and demand higher wages and benefits. In the declining union membership era, it is not surprising that working class folk are either skipping elections entirely or trying to find a new home for their votes.
Now the pressure exists for the Democratic Party to become a quasi-union. That’s a sharp blade edge to walk when no less than the Supreme Court has said corporations have free speech, so bye-bye to campaign finance. Caught between needing money and needing votes.
Hard to say what will actually work here–although I do think Hillary can tap into the female vote. Hillary is spending her time and money fund-raising and establishing a campaign organization. We won’t see any real campaigning from her until the fall months or later. I’m okay with that since 16 Republican candidates are showing just how clueless they are right now. This negatively impacts Bernie’s campaign but is neutral in Hillary’s since she hasn’t really started yet.
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After checking to make sure her present cells are secure, HRC, considering she’s already on record with firm advice to shut it, might want to consider telling a poignantly sweet or amusing and embarrassingly (for a Repug) charming recollection of the Donald from the NYC high society fundraisers or private gatherings, if any exist in her personal recollection. It could be fun, might charm the Donald in a diplomatic manner and would surely irk the easily irked.
One of the reasons that Union membership is declining is due, in no small part, to Union members themselves voting against their better interests. See: Republicans, Union members.
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Look, here’s the problem. The “white working class vote” of 2016 wants policies that no sane person would ever dream of implementing and that, almost without exception, are really bad for them. A balanced budget amendment, tax cuts that primarily benefit rich people because progressive taxation and redistribution offends their tribal allegiences, the end of all forms of public assistance to anyone marginally worse off than they are, slashing funding for public education, stamping out the last vestiges of unionization, and on and on and on.
The idea that Democrats can get any of the votes of that demographic they haven’t already got without making proposals that alienate voters who would otherwise already be in their bag, resulting in a net loss of votes, is the kind of dumb one usually has to purchase from mediocre Beltway consultants. And the idea that the reason we can’t get that demographic is that we just aren’t left wing enough is of a piece with the 19th century socialist fantasy that there’s such a thing as “class consciousness” that can be awakened and cause people to align based on economic rather than tribal or sectarian allegiance. A century of accumulated experimental experiential* evidence indicates the exact opposite, that class consciousness among the proletariat, or even the petty bourgeoisie, is a fragile social construct that will shatter in the face of the slightest stress to be supplanted by nationalism, sectarianism, ethnic alignment or other less abstract more emotively based alignments.
*I hate Safari Autocorrect. They’ve engineered the annoyance factor so that it’s just a hair short of the point where it exceeds its usefulness and induces you to turn it off.
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Hillary will do marginally better than Obama with this non college educated white voter bloc (she did much better with them in 2008), but one has to ask…who cares?
Its a shrinking demographic, and the GOP chase after those white voters that didn’t vote for Romney is very much like chasing after the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Interesting data point…Romney actually received a higher percentage of the white vote than Reagan did…yet still managed to lose the election by 4 points. Today he would lose the election by 6 points…based merely upon the changing sizes of the demographics.
Meanwhile, in their crusade to do just that, they are doing the heavy lifting for Dems with that other voter bloc…you know, the one that is actually growing, and growing increasingly blue…Hispanics. Trumps unfavorables with Hispanics is off the charts. So we are growing the percentage on the demographic group that is growing the fastest in size.
So I have to ask again…who cares if Trump or any other GOPer is polling well with non college educated Whites? Lets see how well they are polling with Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, Women, and college educated Whites.
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Clinton Vs Trump?
Holy cow, that’s a very scary proposition! Either way, we are doomed.
Fact: about 37% of union members vote for Republicans.
Where, oh where, is Joe the Plumber when you need him?
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This was a very nice piece for Hillary’s campaign objectives, and you only have to read the dismissive attitude towards Sanders to understand that. Bernie Sanders is currently bringing in more people to his speeches than any candidate out there of either party, and he is doing it across all party lines and demographics. For all the protesters in Phoenix, Sanders has one of the best civil rights voting records in Congress and that these protesters chose his event has more to do with the media attention they could get for their message than about Sanders himself.
The non-college educated white worker has been a targeted group for the GOP since the Nixon days and it started with the Southern Democrats rejection of civil rights. The GOP and its Tea Party pals capitalized on this during the last election cycles and has been a key part of their strategy for years. Hillary and her hubby played a small part in diverting some of the attention from the GOP for years by pretending to be supporters of this group, but people who actually are not blinded by these two see that they are no political allies of the non-college educated white worker and actively support the corporations, just like the GOP.
The difference is in how they put out that message, and by focusing on other minority groups, the Democrats have allowed this demographic to slip away. Sadly, many of these voters may not have college educations, but they are not stupid (something Democrats seem to miss completely), and while they vote against their own best interests, they also vote for they perceive as being more interested in their needs than Democrats. No one will vote for you if all you pander to are all the other groups in the political spectrum and leave you out in the cold. This is something that Democrats have yet to figure out when they embrace Clinton. They did not get it in 2008 or in 2012. Bernie Sanders gets it, that is why is message is about economics - he is showing all demographic groups how economics affects them all when income inequality is based on the trickle-down economics of both the neo-liberal Democrats and the conservative GOP.
Kilgore is and will always be a Clinton supporter, so he like so many of his pals will never understand that if you want to get the vote of the non-college educated white worker, you need to give them honesty in information and you need to treat them with the same dignity you expect for yourself. This is what Sanders is doing and why he is getting people across the entire political spectrum at his rallies and supporting him. That is the key to winning votes, but more importantly, it is the key to winning voters who may not have gone to college, but who are not stupid. The GOP counts on stupid to win over some of these voters, but most of them vote for the GOP because they are tired of being treated like an after thought by the Democrats or being to dumb to understand the finer points of politics.
Do they vote against their own self-interest? Yes, because they know that the Democrats will sell them out if it suits them or their corporate owners just as easily as the GOP and Tea Party does, so they are sending the deaf-dumb-blind political advisers a message: make your actions match your words, and we will vote for you as we once did. Stand with the corporations and lie to us, and we will vote against you even if it means voting against ourselves since that is the only thing you seem to understand. Non-college educated does not mean ignorant, and until the Democrats and their advisers from corporate America figure that out, they stand as much chance of becoming irrelevant as the GOP is already becoming.
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The Democratic party has abandoned the “white working class” and they know it. Democrats are no longer the “big tent” party, they are the party of women and minorities. The way Governor O’Malley and Senator Sanders were treated at Netroots Nation is emblematic of how whites are treated by Democrats. The white working class is faced with offensive levels of racism in both parties, but at least in the Republican party they aren’t the victims.
Unions have done a crappy job selling their virtues to their members. Too often union leaders are seen as in the pocket of the employers.
This is the perception the Democratic party seems to encourage. That is too bad. It leaves “white working class” people with no perceived champion. That might be part of The Donald’s attraction.
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I remember some PBS thing a lot of years ago now that showed that just about every white family considers themselves middle class. Everyone from households who make mid-six figures to those who are just barely getting by on laborer wages. Not sure how scientific that was or if that still holds true today, but it seems like a very American way of viewing class. Very few will view themselves as poor and being taken advantage of while those who are winning will feel like they are still struggling to make ends meet. I mean, house payment, tutoring, swim lessons, massive grocery bills and gas from commuting all add up you know.
So any strategy that is based on turning out whites based on class seems, even at a gut level, like a misguided and tone deaf strategy. Finally, fuck that demo. There is a certain long game logic in solidifying the non-white vote and devising new and effective ways to actually turn our base voter out at the polls. Make sure that polls are open and plentiful in those neighborhoods. Fight all shitty anti-voting laws. Expose the shenanigans of the racist GOP operatives that block the vote.
That is how Dems win now and well into the future.
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Um, as a white dude and lifelong Democrat I cant disagree more.
I am proud to be part of the party that represents ALL of America and fights to give voice and empower everyone. You can’t say that about the GOP, not even jokingly. And so what if my whiteness and maleness is not pandered to. I’m proud to hear different voices and different points of view of the American experience. Sorry, but I feel that any victimization a white person feels by being a Democrat is a personal issue they need to work out and not systemic within the party.
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Is that really a good strategy when most elections turn on a few percent?
That is not a strategy aimed at all Americans. The strategy leads to victory in urban areas. Writing off the demo means suburban and rural areas are also written off.
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